Peyton Manning comes to San Diego with Denver tonight, knowing he's had a strangely bad time against the Chargers Steven Senne, AP

Peyton Manning is too lofty to agonize over this or anything else, but he probably was not opposed to the possibility that the San Diego Chargers might move.

Like, maybe, to the NBA.

His strangely troubled relationship with the Chargers resumes Monday night, as he tries on a Denver uniform to throw the Bolts off the scent.

Manning has experienced significant highs and startling lows in this geographically incompatible rivalry. He is only 4-3 in the regular season against San Diego and 0-2 in the playoffs.

His regular season QB rating of 72.5 is his lowest against any team, and San Diego has intercepted him 16 times and sacked him 12 times in seven games. Manning's longest completion against San Diego (again, in regular season) is 46 yards.

The uncomfortable closeness began on draft day. Manning was picked first overall in 1998 by Indianapolis, and the Chargers followed by selecting Ryan Leaf second.

The two met in the fifth game of the season and Manning got his first NFL victory, 17-12, although he wasn't really culpable. He was 12 for 23 for 137 yards, with a pick and a score.

The headline on Nick Canepa's column in the San Diego Union Tribune summed up the artistry of the day: "It Doesn't Get Worse Than This."

Manning was 3-13 that rookie year. The next year, he got the Colts into the playoffs and kept them there, every year through 2010.

"I don't remember that game, to be honest," said Bill Polian, the Colts general manager who is now with ESPN. "But later in the year we had a chance to win, and Peyton and Marvin Harrison didn't quite get together on a sight adjustment. I remember telling them afterward that they'd start making those plays soon.

"Some draft gurus were saying Leaf had a better upside, he was a better athlete and he could throw the ball better. None of it was coming from scouts, I can assure you, and none of it turned out to be true."

Polian thus avoided the most calamitous draft mistake in the history of drafts, or mistakes.

In 2004, Manning threw his 49th TD pass of the season, breaking Dan Marino's record, to force OT against San Diego, and a 55-yard run by Dominic Rhodes set up the winning kick as the Colts prevailed, 34-31.

Then the Chargers became a persistent rattle inside Manning's Buick.

In 2005 the Colts were 13-0 when the Chargers invaded Indy, sacked the great man four times, got a late 83-yard burst from Michael Turner, and won, 26-17.

In 2007, the Chargers got really blasphemous and became the first team to intercept Manning three times in the first quarter and six times in a game. Darren Sproles returned two kicks for scores and Adam Vinatieri missed a 29-yarder that allowed the Chargers to escape, 23-21.

Just to prove it was real, the Chargers officially closed the Hoosier Dome with a 28-24 AFC Division Playoff victory. The winning touchdown came from backup QB Billy Volek (!) and Manning was 0 for 3 from the Chargers' 7-yard-line at the end.

The Colts won at San Diego in the 2008 regular season, 23-20, but when they returned for a wild card game, Mike Scifres chose that evening for punting perfection. Five times he made Manning start drives from inside his 11-yard-line, and Tim Dobbins' sack set up a tying field goal. Sproles then won it, 23-17, with a 22-yard run.

"Oddly enough I don't really remember us losing those games because of our offense," Polian said. "I remember us kicking the ball to Sproles and him doing something big."

And in 2010 the Chargers walloped Indianapolis 36-14 on the road when Eric Weddle and Kevin Burnett returned two of Manning's four interceptions for scores.

In a probable coincidence, younger brother Eli Manning treated San Diego as if it were a West Nile breeding ground at the 2004 draft.

The Chargers picked Eli and traded him to the Giants for what became Shawne Merriman, Philip Rivers and kicker Nate Kaeding, but Eli now has two Super Bowl championships.

Now the Colts have Andrew Luck. Before Polian was fired, he told owner Jimmy Irsay that either Luck or Robert Griffin III would be a fine choice.

"Jim thought Griffin would maybe be more susceptible to injury, and I hope he wasn't prescient in that," Polian said. "But the same 'experts' said Luck didn't throw the good deep ball at Stanford. He had three wideouts but they were all tight ends. His arm is fine. In so many ways he's a carbon copy of Peyton."

The Original returns tonight, the best quarterback we'll ever see, but the Chargers can prove he walks the same earth they do. In their archives they have several pounds of his flesh.

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